Working (for Yourself or Others)

Robert Frost once said “By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.”

Whether you work for yourself or for someone else, chances are you’re looking to get ahead. This page is home to articles about doing just that — while maintaining your sanity.

Topics of interest include self-employment, finding a job, earning a promotion, asking for a raise, navigating workplace politics, maintaining work-life balance, and more. If it’s work-related, this is where you’ll find it.

Welcome to February. Right about now, you may be wondering when the balance of your tax paperwork will show up. Sure, you might have received a few things by now. Maybe a 1099 here or there, possibly your W-2. But you can’t really file your taxes until you have everything. […]

While perusing the news with the excellent Zite app the other night, I ran across an interesting article about public sentiment regarding possible changes to the federal minimum wage. It described a “nationally representative” poll that asked if people thought the minimum wage should be raised, lowered, or left alone. […]

As of March 1st, 2013, people who sign up for Social Security benefits are required to set up direct deposit to receive their payments. In my book, this is a good thing. It’s both more cost effective and more secure than mailing out checks and having them sit in a […]

I’m currently going through the open enrollment process at work and wanted to shed some light on a topic that may be confusing to some… As you may or may not be aware, HSAs (i.e., health savings accounts) and FSAs (i.e., flexible spending accounts) are incompatible. More specifically, if you’re […]

At the end of last week, I mentioned that estimated tax payments for the second quarter of 2013 are due soon. As I noted in that post, these payments are intended to help you avoid income tax underpayment penalties if you have income that isn’t subject to withholding (self-employment, investing, […]

Ever wonder who works for minimum wage? Well, wonder no more… The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released data summarizing the characteristics of minimum wage workers. This is particularly timely given the current debate over raising the minimum wage. In 2012, there were 75.3 million workers aged 16 or above […]

A reader recently wrote in with a question about what to do with your health savings account (HSA) after leaving your job. The answer here is… It depends. Consider your options and don’t make any rash decisions. For starters, the money in the HSA is yours, and it’s portable. You’re […]

As a followup to this morning’s post, it dawned on me that not everyone is an expert on FICA payroll taxes. Thus, I thought I’d expand a bit on exactly what these are. You may have noticed deductions on your paycheck called FICA-OASDI and FICA-HI. These are your Social Security […]

Topics of Interest

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